Friday, June 25, 2010

Real Men and a Girl

I thought I better warm up with some real men in case my Emo studies affect me somehow.I love UFC and have sen all these guys fight many times, but it didn't help me today.These are all super stiff and didn't capture their souls.It's probably better to draw them in action or still frame them.I wonder why you never see animated features with manly male heroes like these?Ugh. I gave up on the men and tried a girl. Warm ups didn't work today. Some days you are just stiff.

Hey John, would you bother showing the construction of some of these caricatures? Sometimes I just don't know where the skull ends and the jaw begins, or where the eyes are placed in relation with the skull...Thanks for the attention!

John, I'd love to see you do James Cagney and Jimmy Stewart, two of my all-time favorite actors. Now those guys IMO were real men unlike those emo Twilight douchebags, and for women, you could try out Joan Crawford and Veronica Lake.

That Taylor Swift caricature is the best one out of this whole bunch surprisingly, considering that she really isn't a good musician at all. Funny how all these talentless people have such good looks. I don't watch UFC stuff, so I have no idea who those people are, but I like those too.

Hey John, i have a great idea for how you could help people interpret the difference between a Broad/Bland Character against a Specific Character.

Compare Elmer Fudd to his precursor, Egghead. (p.s. i'm talking about the Egghead that appears in shorts like "Daffy Duck and Egghead" and "Hare-Um Scare-Um", NOT the later Tex Avery Egghead that popped up in stuff like "The Isle of Pingo-Pongo".)

Elmer Fudd, while his design is mostly generic (that is, except for being bald) is a very specific individual-he's a gullible idiot and total wimp, yet has this eager, determined urge to hunt wabbits-and then breaks down and calls himself a murderer for doing so.

Egghead is a pure stock character-aside from his titular distinctive feature, he's a completely one-dimensional character-he's just...a short tempered hunter who hunts stuff, and gets angry when he fails. He has no individual characteristics or personality quirks. He was basically just there to serve as a punching bag for Daffy and the Bugs Bunny prototype.

Think this could be an interesting topic to go into, John?

Oh, and here's another topic i want you to tackle-the "could have been good but wasted" team up of Porky and Gabby.

In theory, the team up SHOULD have worked-Gabby was basically Donald Duck in a goat suit-a grumpy fighter with a hair trigger temper being who could dish it but can't take it, with Porky serving as his foil. (in fact, this is pretty similar to the later Porky and "Chuck Jones Daffy" team ups) Yes, he was one-dimensional, but still a good possibility for the comic duo to work.

But the Porky and Gabby failed because they never gave any oppurtunity to take advantage of the potential for character chemistry, and what was used was usually one sided.

These last three instructional posts, with the inclusion of your warm-ups, have been very inspiring. It makes me want to practice! These posts are a delight to the eyes (even the "stiff" ones) and a pique to the mind. Love it, and thank you as always for continuing this blog.

Hi John, this isn't related to this post, but I blogged recently on the topic of the depiction of human characters in comics, and it's inspired quite a bit by this blog and your own views on the matter. You might be interested in some of it. Go here to read it. Thanks!

I agree with one of your commenters that we love to see your warm ups, as they are far better than everyone else's "masterpieces". I can't believe someone tried to give you advice on how to make your caricatures "lifely". You must laugh your ass off at some of these comments.

Animated features for the rom-com genre like Disney don't design men like these "real men", because they're ugly and scary. We girls get so little pretty boy eye candy, leave us our guilty pleasures. However, I would like a greater variety of personalities and hairstyles in animation. I loved James McCavoy's look in Penelope.

Use "these real men" for comedy and action-adventure where we don't care about the romantic appeal of the character.

Hey, John--finding out that you're an MMA fan elevated your already lofty status in my estimation. Among other things I'm a professional MMA fighter/commentator (I'm also a longtime pro wrestler and the pro wrestling episode of Ren and Stimpy is absolutely one of the greatest creations in the history of everything). Much appreciated for everything you've done in the past, and I agree that you're being too hard on yourself re: the sketches. Brock, Randy and Quinton looked quite good to me. All the best, Paul Lazenby (paullazenby.com)